Connor's Journey
by Akkura
Summary: Connor and Anya have been Task Force Spartans since they were young and thought they had seen everything, until a compromised missions ends in a downed Osprey. They were both pulled out of the burning wreckage by a friend of a friend.


**Okay all you on fanfiction, here is the next story I am working on so I hope you enjoy. I did this cause I couldn't get over my case of writers block so please leave me lots of feedback. **

Bullets slammed into the wall not three inches from Connors face.

"Fuck that was close." He muttered.

"Sigma? Sigma you copy?"

"What West?" Connor shouted in reply.

"We're pinned down by fire from a machine gun nest about 10 clicks north east of your position. We are running low on ammo and have several wounded." West replied calmly.

"What about Click?"

"You sure you want the news sir?" A small race of uncertainty was indicated by the slight tremor in his voice.

Click, whose name was Anya Maligrossa, was one of Connor's closest friends. In fact he loved her and she loved him back. As opposed to a regular military outfit Task Force Spartan discouraged romantic relationships between operators in the same team as opposed to outright banning them. When they were on leave they had dated several times, mostly the usual stuff like moonlit walks along the beach or candle lit dinners. It was a bit cliché but they both enjoyed it. They were both fifteen but when they risked their lives repeatedly no operator really puts age limits on anything.

"How is she?" Connor asked again.

West sighed, "She's in bad shape sir, multiple gunshot wounds and severe bleeding."

"She's not going to die today, find a suitable area for an lz and radio for evac."

"What about you sir?" West asked.

"I'm gonna fight my way to you and take out the mg nest on my way."

"Roger that, you heard the man guys, Slider, clear that lz west of here, Hunter help me keep the pressure on these bastards."

Connor popped up and squeezed of 18 rounds from his XM8 prototype assault rifle, either suppressing or hitting targets as he pushed forward to the next set of cover. He kept up the pattern until there was no one left to shoot.

"Well that was easy." He muttered to himself and ran in the direction of the machine gun nest.

They were set up in an apartment building on the fifth floor giving them a good vantage point over the whole village. Connor kicked the door in and rushed up the stairs, counting the floors as he passed them. He pulled the pin on his grenade, counted to three, and threw it through the door and ran down the stairs. The explosion blew out the weakened walls of the room and caused a partial collapse of the floor.

"West, mg nest all cleared, I'm coming in so don't shoot me."

Connor now flanked most of the terrorists firing on his team and killed several before they noticed him.

"Where's the others?" West asked when he spotted Connor.

"They're gone." He replied bluntly as he squeezed off a few rounds.

"Shit."

"Okay, all clear for now, I'm coming in before more tangoes show up."

Connor sprinted to the wall his team was using as cover and vaulted over it. He immediately went over to Click to check up on her.

"Hey, how ya doing Anya?" He asked softly.

"Fairly okay, I managed to bandage up the wounds pretty well." She said trying to reassure him.

Connor grabbed her hand and held it tightly, "That's good, we'll get you out of here."

"Thanks." She smiled weakly.

"How long till extract?" He asked to the rest of his team.

"Fifteen mikes sir." Slider answered.

"How are you all doing on ammo?"

"I got three more mags for the MK14." Hunter replied.

"I got about four mags plus this one for the M16, four HE grenades, and one smoke for the M320." Slider answered.

"I have about one fifty left for the M240." West replied.

"Let's see, I have two mags left for the XM8 so this is gonna have to do. Fifteen mikes, that's it guys, we can do this."

"I got about twenty foot mobiles coming from the front." Hunter replied as he began to shoot at the approaching force.

"RPG!" West yelled as the rocket screamed overhead and detonated about 100 yards behind them.

Ten minutes into the fight Connor ran out of ammo.

"Shit, hey sweetie, you still have any ammo."

"Sure, take as much as you want." Click coughed.

Connor grabbed a fresh magazine and reentered the fight. An Osprey flew overhead and kicked up the rough sand that created the desert.

"Rides here team, Hunter get to the Osprey and provide cover fire, Slider, I want you to pop smoke for the lz then you and West take Click back to the Osprey, I'll peel back when you get her in."

Anya was about to object but another RPG interrupted her.

"Okay, go!"

Hunter sprinted to the Osprey as several operators fanned out of the bird and started laying down covering fire. West picked Click up in a fireman's carry while Slider back peddled and fired on the terrorists. Once they reached the relative safety of the Osprey Connor turned and sprinted for the bird.

"Sir, anyone else on their way?"

"No, they're gone, we need to get their bodies." Connor replied.

"I'll alert command to divert a team back here for them."

"Thank you."

A medic tended to Click as Connor sat down in a seat. Soon they reached Super Carrier that was dedicated to Task Force Spartan and he rushed Anya to the medical deck. She underwent a surgery to remove a bullet that hadn't passed all the way through her. Connor stayed with her every minute until West came in.

"Hey Johnson."

"Hello Connor, they successfully recovered the bodies."

"Good, who did that?"

"I think you should come see for yourself."

Connor hesitantly followed West to the deck where an Osprey was touching down. The rear ramp lowered and revealed a team of operators carrying out the bodies of his fallen brothers in arms. He stared in disbelief at one of the operators.

"Ray?!"

"You're welcome." Ray said.

"Wow it's just… It's nice seeing you again, after all this time."

"You too."

"So what brings you to this area?"

"Actually we were on our way back from China, some rouge terrorist group had gotten their hands on a nuke and they decided to weaponize it."

"You got them right?"

Ray shook his head.

"Oh… Well I'm going back down to the medical deck, care to join me?"

"Is it Click?" Ray asked.

"How'd you know?" Connor demanded.

"You aren't wounded and you have been fidgeting this whole time so I assumed it was Click."

"More like deduced Sherlock."

"Yeah, I guess." Ray responded as they started walking.

Anya was awake by the time they got there.

"Oh hi Ray, didn't know you were in town."

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by." Ray replied, "So what did Connor get you into this time?"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault, they ambushed us!"

"Wait, you got ambushed?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Did it seem like they knew you would be there?

"Now that you mention it, yeah they were pretty well dug in."

"Damn, I'm gonna have to take this up to command."

"Why?"

"Earlier this month Janet and I were sent to take out an HVT, but they had a large force waiting for us."

"You don't think…"

"Exactly."

"Well boys this is all fine and dandy but you seem to have forgotten I'm injured here." Anya teased.

"I'm not your boyfriend." Ray stated.

"Hey! I wasn't trying to ignore her."

"Yeah, it's my fault, I'm sorry Anya." Ray apologized

"Eh, no problem Ray, so how is Cassandra doing?"

"You… Haven't heard?"

"Heard what? Did she leave or something?" Connor asked.

"Why haven't you heard…" Ray said as he backed away in shock.

"What happened to Cassandra?" Anya asked.

"She…"

"Hey Ray, you okay? Someone said they saw you coming down here." Tania said as she walked into the room.

"I'm fine ma'am, just stopping by to say hello to some friends."

"Ma'am? Who is this? Ray, what happened to Cassandra?"

"He doesn't know?" Tania asked.

Ray nodded yes, "Excuse me, I… I need to get some air."

Ray hurried out of the room, "What happened?" Connor asked.

"Cassandra is dead."

"What?!" Anya and Connor shouted in unison, which elicited several coughs from Anya.

Connor grabbed her hand, "What happened?"

"They were tasked with killing an HVT in Iraq, as they were making their way there Cassandra got hit bad. Ray had to leave her to finish the mission, and her body was gone after he had killed the HVT. From what I heard Ray made the poor bastard suffer."

"He did what? That's not like Ray…" Connor muttered.

"Everyone says he hasn't been the same since, I was her replacement."

"Wow, I never knew…"

"Exactly, why didn't you hear about it?"

"Probably when we were out on a long term mission?" Connor wondered.

"Yeah, probably… I'm gonna go check on Ray, take care of yourselves."

"Will do." Connor said as Tania left.


End file.
